Staring at the stars
by sexily-thranduil
Summary: Model!AU in which Tauriel is a very famous model that works for Thorin and Kili is the photographer that will be responsible for the whole fashion campaign. How will they work things out when they live a love that cannot be?
1. Chapter 1

It had been a week since Kili's uncle, Thorin, a famous designer, started trying to get one of the most famous models, Tauriel, to pose for some pictures for his new collection. She was too busy to accept the job, or so Thranduil, her agent, had said. Nevertheless, after negotiating a millionaire contract, Thorin finally got her to be the new exclusive face for his brand. Kili, was the photographer, and though he tried not to judge someone he didn't know personally, his experience told him Tauriel would be very arrogant, as were all the models that Thranduil used to manage.

~X~

The sound of Kili's alarm clock woke him up at seven a.m. He groaned as he rolled off of the bed and looked around trying to recognize the place he was at, it seemed to be a motel room. He had no idea how he got there, he decided on having a cold shower to see if he remembered anything. His head hurt, he had far too many drinks. He turned on the shower and the water started to fall on his shoulders making him shiver and a few fragmented thoughts from the previous night started to come back to his memory:. _He had gone clubbing with Fili and, as always, his brother got all the girls and he was left alone in the bar having a few drinks, but something different happened, a gorgeous woman approached him and all he could remember after that was her waist-length red hair. They flirted a bit, but he could not remember anything else. _Since he now stood in the middle of a motel room, he was guessing he had slept with her.

He walked out of the bathroom completely naked, using the towel to dry his wet hair when his phone rang.

"Kili here." He answered dropping the towel and starting to pick up his clothes from the floor.

"Kee, where are you?!" His brother's voice was loud from the other side of the line, "Tauriel is already here and uncle Thorin is almost going crazy!"

"Fuck." he muttered and struggled to dress himself, "I'm on my way, Fee. Don't worry. I'll be there in a minute." Kili hung up the phone

He was still finishing to button his shirt up when he ran out of the motel room, checking if he had his wallet and phone with him. He was still wondering how he had forgotten such an important date, when he finally got a cab to pull over. The only reasonable explanation he could come up with was that he had drank more than he thought he had the night before.

When he finally managed to get a cab, he started to run a hand through his hair and clothes attempting to look more presentable. It took him only a minute to get to his uncle's studio. He rushed in almost shattering the glass doors that lead to the reception.

"Good morning, Mr. Durin." The secretary said, receiving a reply she couldn't quite understand.

"Where were you, Kili?!" His uncle screamed as he entered the room where the photo shoot was being held.

"I'm so, so sorry, uncle Thorin. It's quite of a long story..." He said, "I'll tell you later, after the session."

He dashed to his camera that was already set in front of the scenario, his assistant asked him a lot of questions as he made his way there.

From his position, he could see Tauriel, the makeup and hair stylists were their job and he could anticipate she would look wonderful, since even before the final touches she looked astonishing. She was indeed as beautiful as everyone said. Tauriel owned a beauty that not even the most powerful camera would be able to capture entirely and her hair, oh her waist-length fiery red hair... Kili had a feeling he had seen her somewhere before, that wasn't a picture. He watched as she smiled and headed to the scenario where the photo shoot would take place, taking her silver colored silken robe off and revealing a skin tight dark green dress that accentuated her delicate curves. He walked over to her, more than trying to seduce her, his objective was to, at least, befriend her, so their relationship at work would be good.

"Hi," He greeted her with a smile, "I'm Kili, the photographer, nice to meet you."

"Oh, hi, you probab-" She started to say, but stopped mid-sentence, her eyes widened and her cheeks turned of a bright red shade. Kili checked himself, maybe he forgot about something important such as zipping up his pants.

Finding nothing, he asked her, "Um... Is everything okay?"

"How can you not remember?" She narrowed her eyes at him in disbelief.

"Remember what?"

That question earned him a slap across the face and Tauriel she took up her position where the photos would be taken. Kili's eyes never left her long beautiful legs. He was confused, he was sure he had never met the model before- he would remember if he had.

~X~

Since he was late, the session advanced through what would usually be their lunch time. He was relieved when they finally managed to finish the initial session and could have a break to grab some food. As always, he left with his brother for lunch at a fast-food restaurant nearby. Their way there was made in silence, but, as soon as they got a table, Fili started talking.

"Where were you this morning? Why were you late?"

"Sorry, Fee." Kili apologized, "I woke up in a motel room by myself, I have no idea of what happened."

"You got laid?! How was your first time?" Fili laughed.

"Shut up! It wasn't my first time, you moron!"

"Was it good? Was she hot?"

"Well, I don't know! As I told you, I don't remember anything, just a lot of red hair."

"I remember seeing you going out yesterday with a red-headed chick. She kinda looked like Tauriel."

"What?!" Kili gasped, "If I slept with her, I would remember it."

"Oh... Looks who has a crush on our fellow worker... Kee, I never thought she would be your type."

"No! Of course I don't. I just think she's pretty. Don't you?" Kili defended himself and was sure Fili didn't buy his excuse.

"Nah!" His brother waved his hand dismissively, "She's too thin. I like fuller woman."

"Okay, okay..." Kili sighed.

"All this talk reminded me of something, tonight we're all going out to celebrate our newest member acquisition, Tauriel. Would you care to join us?"

"Of course. Where is it and at what time?"

"It's at Thranduil's mansion. Tonight at eight. You'll have to wear a tux by the way."

Kili scowled, he hated formal wear and he'd have to go shopping later.

"See you there, then, Fee. I have to go now. I still have to do about fifty more good photographs of her." He excused himself and left to the studio.

~X~

Finally they were done for the day. Still, he had to buy a suit, so he rushed out of the studio to start looking for them. He saw dozens of suits, Armanis, Ferragamos, none of them looked good on him, though. He'd looked in almost every store and, in a last attempt, he entered a store he had never laid eyes upon before, Ermenegildo Zegna was its name. He managed to get his tuxedo there.

Back at his apartment, Kili had a shower and waited until it was near the time of the party to finish getting ready. He dressed himself in his new clothes and left to the garage to get his car, still a bit unsure if he should go to that party. It took him about half an hour to get there since it was outside Manhattan. There were already lots of cars parked there and, for the second time that night he asked himself what he was doing there.

Thranduil's mansion was huge. It had three floors and was located in a beautiful isolated terrain in the finest area of the Hamptons, but still far from the island, some people said it was the most expensive mansion there... and they were probably right. It was the biggest house he had ever seen, one could get lost just by surrounding it. The main house had three floors and over fifteen bedrooms, the guest house was already three times bigger than his.

Finally, he entered the main party area, being careful not to slip on the overly polished marble floor as he made his way to the ballroom, paying attention to every detail of the halls. The ceiling was high and most of the room had huge crystal chandeliers, the sound of classical music got louder with each step he took and he sighed, this was going to be a boring night. After what seemed to be an eternity walking, he got to the room. It wasn't crowded, since it would take the whole population of Manhattan for it to seem so, still, there were a lot of people there. He recognized some of the guests from magazines and parties he had attended to with his uncle, besides his co-workers, Tauriel and Thranduil there was no one else he knew personally.

Waiters walked all around the room serving people and he got a glass of champagne on his way to the corner where his co-workers were.

"Good night." He greeted them in an overly pompous manner to imitate the way all the other people were acting.

"Good night, sir Kili." Ori, the youngest replied chuckling lightly. Kili didn't see that, though, he was too busy scanning the room and searching for Tauriel. He didn't know why he was doing that, but he tried to convince himself it was because he wanted to avoid her, but he knew deep inside he was only lying to himself.

He spotted her in a corner, she wore a long dark blue dress and her hair fell on her back in a curls. She was accompanied by a man that looked a lot like Thranduil, like a younger version of him. Kili pretended he didn't see her and spent the night with his friends. In the end, it wasn't as boring as he thought it would be.

Overall, the party was fun. There were many women who wanted to dance with her, he refused all the requests though. Kili spent the night with his friends talking and drinking, despite all the weird looks they were receiving from the guests. He tried to hold his liquor, since he was driving back home and didn't feel like leaving his car at Thranduil's mansion. All the guests, but Tauriel went to talk to them. Even Thranduil and his son who was Tauriel's companion greeted them. Still, the model didn't even glance at them, Kili guessed it was because of their meeting earlier that morning.

Besides the main ballroom, there were also rooms with billiard tables. Since he got tired of the monotony of the party, he went to the play some snooker, hoping to distract himself. When he got there, of all the hundreds of guests, the one that was there was Tauriel.

"So, Tauriel." He said entering the room, "Care to join me on a game of snooker?"

"Of course, Kili." She smiled bitterly at him and took a pool cue on her hands.

"Very well." He reached for his own cue. He wasn't the best of players, but he played fairly well.

After about thirty minutes playing he gave up, Tauriel was too skilled to compete with her.

"Okay, okay, you win."

Tauriel smiled again, this time it was sweeter. "I guess so."

"So, what was that slap about this morning?" he dared to ask her and regretted it the second her beautiful smile faded.

"You still don't know? I don't want to talk about it, Kili, excuse me." she left the room.

~X~

The party was over very quickly and he was glad to leave the mansion. He was one of the first ones to leave. It was a long way drive to his apartment, but he finally got there after a few hours.

He undressed himself, leaving the suit carelessly on the ground and had a bath, he was too tired to even care about it. It was only when he was drying himself up that he noticed the scratches on his back. He ran a finger through them lightly. They stinged a bit. He was sure it had something to do with the night before and that they meant good sex. Maybe Tauriel was right, maybe he had slept with her... He decided not to insist on that thought and go to sleep, he was very tired after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Kili was done working with Tauriel. Because of the small incident they had, she was making his life a living hell. The redhead was always complaining to Thorin about everything he did and always found a way to turn everyone against him. He had to stop working in his usual clothes and change into something more formal, his working hours were much more strict than they were before and he barely had time to do anything but work.

His free time at his apartment was spent playing video games. He refused each and every single invitation he received from anyone who even dared to call his phone. His place was a complete mess. Three floors in which the ground could not be seen due to the amount of dirty clothes, food and other things that lay there carelessly thrown by him.

Kili spent almost two months going like that. But, on a Friday night, once he had beaten every single game he had-about 20 of them- twice, he had nothing more to do but to resign himself to the cold and hard reality of his current situation. He started off with cleaning his apartment, that was the task that lasted the longest, then he decided on having a bath. Kili was ready for a good night of sleep so he could start fresh in the morning, he was almost done putting on his pajamas when his phone rang.

"Kili here." He answered trying to repress a sigh.

"Hi, Kili." Thorin's voice sounded from the other side of the line.

"Oh, hi, Uncle Thorin." Kili said.

"So, we're all going out to the movies tonight and, since you haven't been out of weeks, I was wondering if you'd like to join us there?"

"Sure." Kili replied. Maybe he should start with being more social. "What time do I meet you there?"

"The movie starts at eight, so we're all meeting at seven thirty inside the cinema near your place."

"Okay. Meet you in half an hour."

"See ya, Kee." He hung up the phone.

~X~

Since the place where they were meeting were very close to his house, Kili left when it was almost time. He was just getting there when his vision was assaulted by a wave of bright white flashes and people screaming a name he knew... It sounded like... Tauriel!

"Dammit!" Kili muttered to himself as his eyes got used to the bright lights. He was able to see a lot of red hair trying to run in high heels from the paparazzi and failing miserably, so, despite all their differences, he decided to help her escape from them.

Kili managed to make his way inside the confusion of cameras and people dressed in black and help Tauriel out of there, taking her through a shortcut to the cinema and entered through the back door so the photographer wouldn't know they arrived.

They soon found out that Thorin had closed the place and paid for a session only for them.

"You're welcome, ma'am." Kili said when they were in a quiet place.

"I never asked for your help." Tauriel spat coldly.

"If it wasn't for me, you'd still be out there trying to run away from those paparazzi. Why is it so hard for you to thank me?!" He was losing his temper.

"Like I don't know you! You just did that because you wanted to appear on the magazines and win a lot of money spreading nasty stories about me." She shrugged turning her back on him.

"Listen here, you spoiled brat! I don't need anyone's money, I get paid- very well by the way- because of my work. You turned my life into a living hell and now you even dare to accuse me of trying to sell nasty stories about you? Grow up, Tauriel! The world doesn't spin sround you."" He grabbed her hand forcing her to turn and face him. "You know what? I was right about you, Tauriel. I thought you were different, but ends up, you are just like all the other models I ever worked with, so sure of yourself."

He finally released everything he had been suppressing for two months in a row. Kili felt way more relieved then. But that feeling was over rather quickly when he saw the look in her eyes. It was a mix of pain and despise.

"You know nothing about me, Kili." She hissed before roughly pulling her arm out of his grip and walking to talk to Legolas and Thranduil.

"Quite a fight you were having there, eh?" Fili said approaching his brother from behind.

"Oh, Hi, Fili. It wasn't anything important." The man waved his hand dismissively, "Now, shall we buy something to eat while watching the movie?"

"Sure, let's go."

They watched a very good action movie, just the way Kili liked it, with lots of battles and blood- and some spicy scenes. Still, he couldn't help but notice that Legolas was there too, sitting right next to Tauriel, her head rested on his shoulder. Perhaps, the thought, they were a couple.

~X~

On the next Monday, the first person that went to talk to him as soon as he set foot on the studio was Tauiel. She seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"Hi, Kili." She said a bit shyly.

"Good morning, Tauriel." He replied coldly.

"Listen, um... About last Friday... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be that rude." She almost muttered looking down.

"It's okay," Kili waved his hand dismissively, "Now tell me, who asked you to come here and apologize?"

"No one. Why do you ask." Tauriel looked at him, her green eyes gazing coldly into his.

"Come on. You wouldn't just come to me and apologize without a good reason. What else could it be if not because someone requested asked you to do it?"

"Well, Kili, perhaps, I wanted to have a better relationship with you, I can see you're not interested in that, so I'll just go." She turned her back on him and left.

It wasn't that Kili didn't want to have a better relationship with her, it was just that he was too proud to admit it. He knew he earned her an apology, but she would have to give him a very good reason for him to tell her that he was sorry.

That day, the shooting wasn't as good as the others, she was too distracted and he was too. Maybe he should just go there and say he was sorry already, it wouldn't hurt, would it? Kili just needed the right opportunity to do so.

~X~

Almost a month had passed since their little fight and Kili always caught himself delaying the moment when he would say the words that might change their relationship forever. All he had to do was ask her to have a coffee with him so they could talk and figure things out. Maybe during lunch or on whichever free time they had. Kili barely knew that, on that day, seemingly just another ordinary 5th of June would be the one day that would change his life forever.

When the first photo session was over, he walked towards Tauriel, his heart beating nervously in his chest.

"Hi. I know our relationship hasn't been _that _good since the first day we met, but I was wondering if you're willing to start again." Kili told her.

"Um... What did you mean by that?" Tauriel asked confused.

"Well..." He cleared his throat before finally asking, "Would you like to have a coffee with me later? Maybe during lunch? Just so we can talk."

"Of course, I would love to." She smiled brightly at him.

"Really?!" He gasped not believing in what he had just heard.

"Yeah, why not?" Tauriel shrugged and excused herself, she had to change for the next shoot.

~X~

When it was lunch time, he almost ran down the stairs not to be late for their meeting. He wanted to start fresh with her and give her no excuse to hate him unless she didn't like his personality. Consequently, he got there earlier than he was supposed to be. He bought two coffees, one for him and one for Tauriel, just the way he knew her assistant brought her every morning.

Kili was nervous, he was scared of ruining it all. In his head, it was his only chance of fixing things and he wasn't sure of what her reaction would be. He chose a table and waited for her to enter the shop. Kili checked his phone for any messages and calls he might have missed while taking a small sip of his coffee. He was distracted answering a message from his brother asking where he was, when he was surprised by Tauriel who sat in front of him.

"Hi." She greeted the man shyly.

"Oh, hi." He smiled at her and handed her her coffee, "I bought you this."

"Why, thank you, Kili." the redhead smiled back gladly accepting the drink, before taking a sip and commenting, "How did you know which one to buy?"

"I see your assistant getting you this one every day." He chuckled lightly.

"I had no idea you paid that much attention to me, Mr. Durin." Tauriel joked

"I'm a photographer, Tauriel, I have to pay attention to every single detail." Kili told her laughing.

"I should have guessed that earlier, shouldn't I?" She inquired taking another sip from her coffee.

"Perhaps." He shrugged.

"Kili, um... I don't know if I'm making wrong assumptions, but you know I'm seeing someone, don't you." She told him.

"Yeah, I do. But I can assure you I don't have any sort of love interest on you. I just want to be friends, y'know. Like, start again, since we didn't do very well the first time we met."

"I guess." She looked down at the table and put a loose strand of hair behind her ear nervously. Even after all those months, he still hadn't found out what had happened on their first meeting and decided it was better not to ask.

"You're dating Legolas, right?" He asked.

"Yup." She seemed to relax a little at the change of subject.

"He doesn't seem to like us very much. I mean, me and my friends." Kili said, "I mean, my other friends, 'cuz you're my friend too... I guess."

"Yeah, I am," She laughed at his confusion with the words before replying, "And, well, there's all thing between your uncle and Thranduil, it seems it's been in your family for centuries. They never really like each other. So Legolas doesn't seem to like you too."

"It makes sense..." Kili muttered absently, "Uncle and Thranduil seem to be getting along so well, though.

"I know... It's weird, as if there was something else between them." She laughed, "I'm just kidding, okay?"

"It's fine!" Kili laughed along and waved his hand dismissively.

"Well, I'm sorry to interrupt you love birds here, but it's almost time to get back to the studio and you don't want to be late." Fili seemed to from behind his brother.

"What the fuck, Fili! Where did you come from." Kili turned around staring incredulously at his brother, he did such childish jokes, "We're already going, I'm keeping track of time."

"If you say so, Kee. Well, see ya later."

"Sorry about him." The dark haired man apologized.

"Don't worry, but he's right, we better get going."

"Sure. Shall we?" Kili stood and helped Tauriel stand too. Something he did more of force of habit.

~X~

Kili still had to finish storing his stuff when he spotted Tauriel leaving. Quickly, he ran to her and invited, "Hey, so we're all going to watch that new movie, '300 Rise of An Empire' this Friday. If you want, you can join us there after work. You can take Legolas with you too if you want."

"Sure, I'll be there." She smiled at him and left.


End file.
